Absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins are known that are provided with protrusions exhibiting cushioning properties on the skin contact side of the top sheet, for suitable fitting with the body of the wearer. Providing protrusions on the skin contact side of the top sheet allows more suitable fitting to the body of the wearer to help prevent fluid leakage even when the body of the wearer has moved.
For example, PTL 1 describes an absorbent article, the object being to provide an absorbent article exhibiting satisfactory cushioning properties even when the protrusions are under low load, an excellent fitting property and feel during wear, and resistance to leakage. The absorbent article described in PTL 1 has the following construction: An absorbent article comprising a front sheet, a back sheet and an absorbing layer disposed between both sheets, the absorbent article being formed in an essentially longitudinal manner, and having protrusions protruding toward the skin side of the wearer at the center section in the widthwise direction of the absorbent article, wherein the protrusions internally comprise an upper cushion layer situated adjacent to the front sheet and a lower cushion layer located under the upper cushion layer, a lower absorbing layer being situated on the non-skin contact side of the lower cushion layer, and the upper cushion layer being more easily deformable under pressure in the thickness direction, than the lower cushion layer.
Also, PTL 2 describes an absorbent article, the object being to provide an absorbent article with excellent cushioning properties, having protrusions that exhibit a satisfactory fitting property and flexibly deform to follow movement of the skin of the wearer, and having low fluid spread and resistance to wet-back. The absorbent article described in PTL 2 has the following construction: An absorbent article comprising a front sheet, a back sheet and an absorbing layer between them, wherein the absorbing layer comprises a lower absorbing layer, an upper absorbing layer located further toward the front sheet side than the lower absorbing layer and having a smaller size than the lower absorbing layer, and a cushion layer disposed between the lower absorbing layer and the upper absorbing layer, there being formed protrusions protruding toward the front sheet side by the front sheet, the upper absorbing layer and the cushion layer, at the center section in the widthwise direction of the absorbent article, the cushion layer is made of a fiber aggregate composed mainly of hydrophilic synthetic fiber, the density ρU of the upper absorbing layer, the density ρC of the cushion layer and the density ρD of the lower absorbing layer satisfy the relationship ρC<ρU<ρD under non-pressure conditions, and the density ρUP of the upper absorbing layer, the density ρCP of the cushion layer and the density ρDP of the lower absorbing layer satisfy the relationships ρUP≤ρCP≤ρDP and ρUP<ρDP under pressure conditions.